film review : Attack the Block

Starting to feel like The Angriest Critic only hates movies? Sometimes “great genre cinema” comes along and deserves prase like, “easily the most entertaining film of the year.”

by Adam Rosina

Let’s cut the foreplay and get right down to it: Attack the Block was easily the most entertaining film of the year, and this was not a year without a great deal of exceptional genre fare. This Edgar Wright-produced film by British first-timer Joe Cornish is one of the most unexpectedly mind-blowing debut movies of the last two decades, and right up there with the first efforts of Tarantino, Smith and the rest of the 90s indie innovators. I make that comparison without the slightest hint of exaggeration. There’s just so much to love here! It’s an original film, but like many of its contemporaries, it isn’t afraid to wear its influences loud and proud, with an inspired mash-up of The Goonies and Monster Squad-type films of the eighties with Carpenter in his prime. But this is no mere homage, and Cornish is both a writer of great skill and a director with a keen eye for composition. He also manages to bring together an amazing cast of newcomers to deliver startlingly realistic (and often hilarious) performances one would never expect in the midst of a sci-fi horror flick. The creatures are perfectly terrifying and the action, while ever exhilarating, does not cross the line into violent “god-mode” parody. But the best part of this film is its revolutionary spirit, capturing the tensions of a nation and the frustrations of its marginalized youth. In short, Attack the Block is absolute punk-fucking-rock.